US National Security State: One Big Rotted System JOHN SARGIS

We have written in these pages that it has become ever clear that the US has expanded into an admitted state sponsor of terror, a despotic dictatorship disguised as representative “democracy”, a police state. The cause of this crisis and the crises facing our society is the concentration of power in the hands of elite members of the market economy and representative ‘democracy’ (do a back round on the members of Congress to discern their previous incarnations before they became professional politicians). Accumulating power in the areas of economic and political decision-making effectively takes it out of the hands of the people, and consequently, the people, removed from taking these decisions become increasingly apathetic in being able to think they can change society into a genuine democracy. Although concentration of political and economic power at the hands of the political and economic elites respectively has been an indispensable feature of representative “democracy” and the market economy, the degree of the accumulation of power in the present capitalist neoliberal globalization is by any standard the highest ever in the history of this system.

An instance persuasively confirming the nature of the US regime, as it has presently developed, is the present case of state spying on Americans. Continuing its repeated illegal and law breaking activities despite all its apologies and vows to protect Americans against illegal gathering of information, members of the transnational elite in the Bush regime again were caught spying on Americans. The Inspector General (IG) of the Justice Department issued a report on 9 March ’07 regarding illegal spying on Americans.[1]In this instance, Robert Mueller, Director of FBI’s secret police, admitted the FBI had by-passed even the draconian, spy-friendly, and regressive Patriot Act in pursuing whom they call ‘terrorists’ (the definition of ‘terrorist’ changes to fit their needs, like torture, which according to them, is ‘massive organ failure’). What has taken place is that the FBI’s National Security Letters (NSL) were improperly writtenand the law intentionally ignored, so that illegal gathering of intelligence on many thousands of Americans deemed suspected terrorists could continue in secret.[2]

For five years goons of the FBI, supposedly the best trained law enforcers, extorted bank statements, credit bureau records, email records from internet service providers, and information from other businesses in an attempt to obtain personal data, without any authorization, on Americans. By breaking the law, the FBI has committed several thousand crimes by collecting telephone, email and any electronic records without approval, and furthermore, officials, who were not authorized to sign a NSL, did so, and 8,850 requests were never reported.[3]If NSLs are so vital to national security, no terrorist or terror cells were claimed to have been disrupted among the over 143,000 people spied upon in which 22% of the cases had violations.[4]

The bogus war on terror and the criminal invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan initiated by members of the transnational elite is used also, at the same time, to solidify the grip of the terrorist police state in America. Because Alberto Gonzales and Robert Mueller admitted that the FBI and the Justice Department failed to uphold the law, then Alberto Gonzales and Robert Mueller must be arrested on conspiracy to commit terror. For while the Patriot Act was up for re-authorization last year, Gonzales and Mueller were testifying under oath to a complicit Congress that issues of accountability, protecting private data, oversight, etc. were being addressed, and they reassured Congress that they were protecting civil liberties, declaring that no abuses of the Patriot Act were taking place, and that they were in full compliance with the law. Under this sham impression they were breaking the law for 5 years, and even if Congress was informed, the spying would continue. Giving spying the legitimacy of Congress does not make it right.

In his 9 March[5] prepared remarks about the IG report Alberto Gonzales came up with one lie and contradiction after another. He says, “Under the direction of the President, we spent a lot of time trying to get it right, and on building a structure with multiple layers of security and review.” It is a lie. The structure, if it ever existed, was a ploy to gain the confidence of the public. Gonzales tries to justify the use of the NSLs, because they have, “contributed significantly to many investigations.” Another lie—where are the statistics of terror cells or terrorists arrested in these five years? The Attorney General talks of the protection built into the NSL, “They cannot be used to obtain the content of communication.” And another lie—so if a suspected American terrorist talks to some guy in a cave in Afghanistan about needing money to blow up Atlantic City at a certain date, the Attorney General cannot garner that information? Then what is the point of the NSL, only to gather information to whom one speaks, but not what is said? That is ridiculous! So what is the point of having NSLs? Again, another pearl by the little General, “I am confident that the FBI is able to aggressively police itself.” Another lie—‘police itself’ is code for finding no fault under the deception of being law abiding. So the police will police the police. How could the NSL go forward if they were filled out wrong, without necessary approvals or the wrong person suspected? “By breaking the law,” any proper thinking person would reply. But Gonzales comes up with the usual blather that errors were made, questionable judgment used, lack of attention, no intentional wrongdoing, and it will not happen again! “During the discussion of the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, I believed that the FBI was acting responsibly”, but what he knew was the opposite. It is difficult to believe that, out of the 143,000 cases involved, not one anomaly or significant problem found its way to his desk. Gonzales comes up with ultimate cry baby pablum for, “patience—that we not rush to judgment, and we allow corrective measures to work.” And Congress agrees!

That this government is a facade for the transnational political and economic elite and is losing the trust of the people with the constant revelations of illegal eroding of privacy and civil rights, while Bush and his lackeys constantly talk of their crimes as failures and errors, and that corrective actions will take place, and “we will meet the high standards we have set”—all this is only part of the problem and becomes more evident at every instant. Furthermore ,not only is it the FBI, but also the Pentagon and CIA who have also been caught spying on Americans. In fact, the problem resides not only with the Republicans, but also the Democrats. Replacing the Bush regime with Democrats will in effect amount to the same thing, as it is clear by the fact that the Democrats, as members of the transnational elite, have been giving Bush all the necessary tools to spy on Americans. Therefore, if the Democrats take over the White House, they will simply continue the same process, even if this is done with the use of a different rhetoric. Earlier this month, Hillary and Obama along with the Democratic Congress gave Bush the permission to attack Iran without him having to inform Congress. This clearly confirms the bipartisan effort of the transnational elite to continue the same goal of establishing the economic and political aims of the New World Order. So, not only the prior approval by the people for such an extremely dangerous escalation of the conflict is thought unnecessary but not even that of its “representatives” in the Congress have to be notified. This is what “democracy” is about today, which-- by the way-- has to be imported, willingly or not, by everybody in the world!

Those government agents and secret police, as part of the economic and political elite’s establishment, constantly keep getting away with their lies, because of the scary scenarios and fear with which they alarm the people like, “no matter where you live certain kinds of activities can indicate terrorist plans that are in the works, if you see or know about suspicious activities, please report them immediately to the proper authorities.” Gonzales spins the fear, “In our war on terror, we are faced with a new kind of enemy, and a new kind of battlefield…we have to adjust our intelligence-gathering systems to fight them. We have gotten it right a lot of the time, but as you have been told today we will get it wrong on rare occasions.” Another lie--when have they gotten it right? Torturing, extraordinary rendition, spying on citizens, suspension of habeas corpus, have been proven not to gain intelligence. And in the ultimate slap in the face Gonzales prattles, “I look forward to working with Congress…protecting the privacy of all Americans.” But, it is the Congress/Bush regime, representing the interest of the transnational economic and political elite, who are rolling back the Bill of Rights and steamrolling the US into a totalitarian state where the government increasingly operates in secrecy. These international criminals keep coming up with lame excuses to diligently work to ensure oversight, whereas what they are doing is creating a powerful secret security apparatus. They do not care about laws except when it suits their needs. Laws, particularly if they have been passed under popular pressure (eg. civil rights) are inconveniences and get in the way in keeping America secure and preventing the elites to remain in power.

Clearly, Congress and Bush regime officials need to be investigated and arrested for high crimes and misdemeanors. Alberto Gonzales is the chief law enforcer, and for him to ignore the law is incredulous. The FBI purposefully bypassed the law. The IG audit claims, "we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities."[6] Why are the FBI, CIA, Pentagon, etc. continually breaking the law? Because the law sometimes gets in the way of the transnational economic and political elite having absolute power. Congress, as with the Presidency, is an arm of the transnational elite. What more proof is needed for the American people “to dissolve the political bands that have united us”, when every week it seems more revelations are brought to light that the government of the United States has been destroying the rights it is sworn to uphold? All we get out of Bush’s minions are barefaced lies and intentional counterfeit declarations about the most egregious illegal spying that has been going for years. All we get out of the Democrats are comforting assurances, as in the past, that illegal warrantless spying will never happen again. Yet, they do despite these soothing pledges. The Democrats do not offer an alternative and in fact represent the same interests as the Republicans with slight modifications in tactics. The cronies of the Bush dictatorship and the Democrats do not hesitate to operate outside the law, if the law happens to restrict them in their activities. The Democrats do not care until the Bush regime gets caught and offers in return only a slap on the wrist. The Patriot Act must be repealed, but this will not happen while the political and economic elite remain in power. At this point it has become evident that the people must claim their right and duty to abolish the present government which has, “a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations”, which are neither light nor transient, and “evinces a Design to reduce them [people] under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards…”. In fact, the people must claim their right and duty to abolish any government concentrating power at the hands of various elites and replace their repressive institutions with institutions of inclusive democracy.

From the inclusive democracy perspective, the phony war on terror conducted at home and abroad is devised as a ruse for a long global war, “of securing the stability of the NWO in its economic and political dimensions through the crushing of any perceived threats against it.”[7] Through the concentration of power accumulated by the market economy and representative ‘democracy’ on the global level, the transnational economic and political elite believe they can easily subdue any reaction against the growth of the globalized economy. People are living in ignorance if they think that the System of the market economy and representative ‘democracy’ bring more freedom and security. In fact, the opposite is true, because economic and political decisions are filched from the people, in this System of concentration of economic and political power in the hands of elites. This System offers mis-education, unemployment, spying on citizens, underemployment, removal of habeas corpus, poor health care, international gang violence, etc.[8] Freedom in American society will occur only when, through the conscious choice of the people, the concentration of power in the hands of elites is replaced by the equal distribution of economic, social and political power based on the inclusive democracy standards of autonomy and community. This democratic rationalism is the only way out of the multidimensional crisis we are facing. This crisis cannot be lessened within the System of the market economy and representative ‘democracy’. The system’s professional politicians and economic elite simply reproduce the crisis, as the crisis itself has been set in motion through the very dynamics of the same System.

[1] http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/s0703b/final.pdf
[2] A NSL is a request for information held by a third party that is issues by the FBI in connection with an authorized counterterrorism or counterintelligence investigation.
[3] http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/s0703b/final.pdf
[4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6435891.stm
[5] http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches/2007/ag_speech_070309.html

All quotes from Herr Gonzales refer to this note.
[6] http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel07/nsl_transcript030907.htm
[7] http://www.democracynature.org/dn/vol8/takis_globalwar.htm
[8] Reformists and upholders of the System repeatedly confuse effects of the System as causes and whatever strategy they put into place to alleviate societal problems only add to the crisis, because they never get to the original source of the problem, the market economy and representative ‘democracy.’ For example, to combat gang activities and other crimes on the streets of Paterson, NJ more and more cameras (42) are being installed, also at any hour of the day there are patrolling Paterson, besides the municipal police department, a municipal SWAT team, the Narcotics Bureau of the Passaic County Sheriff's Department, the Anti-Crime Unit of the Passaic County Sheriff's Department, the Passaic County Sheriff's Department SWAT Team, the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office Narcotics Task Force, the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office Joint Narcotics Task Force, New Jersey State Police, New Jersey State Police, the FBI, and immigration agents of Homeland Security. What this all means is instead of brining everyone to jail as in a hardcore totalitarian regime they have brought the neoconservative jail to the people, who are under 24 hour surveillance by camera and patrols.